Location: Illuminati Underwater

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Dominion of Gruad is a massive, economically powerful nation, ruled by The Grayface with an iron fist, and notable for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 1.222 billion are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, moralistic, pro-business government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Commerce. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Poseidia. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 75%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Beef-Based Agriculture, Uranium Mining, and Automobile Manufacturing industries.

Senior citizens can usually be found doing heavy manual labour, bicyclists are banned from major roads, citizens are barcoded to keep track of their movements, and speaking out against the government is punishable by flogging. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Gruad's national animal is the leviathan, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is Sacrificial Illuminism, and its currency is the mark.

Gruad is ranked 1st in Illuminati Underwater and 2,068th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 9 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and